The Monday Sessions

Today I went to Ofvandahl's, the grand old lady of Uppsala's tearooms, to see what this local institution is all about. It's been dishing out coffee and cakes from the same spot on St. Olofsgatan for over a hundred and fifty years - including to the Swedish Royal Family, whose gold-embossed royal assent certificates still hang proudly on the walls.

There's a strong feel of "faded glory" to the place, whose ramshackle old furniture and mismatched porcelain could be mistaken for shabby chic, as opposed to just shabby, which I suspect is a more accurate description. (Sweden seems to have two varieties of café: "dotty granny's house" and "industrial loft space." This was definitely the former.) That said, the home-made baked goods were uniformly beautiful, and the confection I had - something which can only be described as a cube of solid chocolate and ganache - was as close to patisserie nirvana as I've ever experienced. In addition, I was given free coffee refills by the owner, who was one of the "old guard" of small business owners who of course tops you up with a knowing wink because it's the decent thing to do.*

This evening was spent with Jacob, a local guy who tracked me down via a Facebook group and proposed a linguistic exchange. He was keen to practice his newly-acquired French after a spell living in Paris, and I was obviously eager to speak as much Swedish as possible, so we met up for a night of foreign language chat in the basement of Kalmar Nation - my new spiritual home here. Among its many facilities are a restaurant and bar in the basement, and each Monday night they host an event called Måndag Sessions, a night of cheap vegetarian food, cocktails and hip electro music. Jacob turned out to be a really interesting guy as well as an invaluable language aide, and we've decided to make nut burgers and conjugation a weekly combination.

Today's picture is of Kalmar's restaurant, which gives you a better feel for the inside of the building, which - as I said in a previous post - is not especially pretty from the outside. One thing I'll say for the Swedes and their funkis architecture - what may appear on the outside to be a bland block is almost always incredibly cosy and tastefully decorated within. On that snug note, I bid you all goodnight!

*As a side note, there is no Starbuck's here, which is incredibly refreshing. They have domestic equivalents which are of course a little soul-less, but their dominance means that the big global coffee beast hasn't been able to find a foothold in the Swedish market just yet, much like Quick has kept Burger King out of France. Much as I love my Chicken Royales and poncy strawberry frappuccini, I feel that this can only be a good thing.